James Harden had 33 points and short-handed Houston edged closer to clinching a playoff spot with a 116-98 victory over Portland on Friday.
Jeremy Lin added 22 points to help the Rockets to their fourth straight victory. Houston (43-33) remained in seventh place in the Western Conference — three games in front of the Los Angeles Lakers — for their first playoff appearance since 2008-2009.
LaMarcus Aldridge returned from an ankle injury with 32 points and 13 rebounds for the Blazers (33-43), who matched their season-worst slide with a seventh straight loss.
In Indianapolis, Indiana, Oklahoma City’s Kevin Durant overcame a bruised left calf to score 34 points and lead the Thunder to a 97-75 win over the Indiana Pacers, moving the team level with San Antonio for top spot in the NBA’s Western Conference.
Russell Westbrook added 24 points for the Thunder, who beat the Spurs on Thursday, after arriving at the team hotel in Indianapolis at 4am, then went out and prevented the Pacers from clinching their first Central Division title in nine years.
The Pacers, who got 22 points from Roy Hibbert, could clinch the title with a win yesterday at Washington.
Elsewhere, the Los Angeles Lakers held onto the last playoff position in the West by beating Memphis. Carmelo Anthony tied a franchise record as New York downed Milwaukee and won their 11th straight, while a depleted Miami had enough in hand to defeat Charlotte. Houston edged closer to the playoffs with a win over Portland, while Philadelphia had their highest-scoring quarter of the season in beating Atlanta.
Lakers star Kobe Bryant had 24 points and nine assists, while Pau Gasol added 19 in their 86-84 win over the Memphis Grizzlies, with Dwight Howard hitting the late winner.
THREE STRAIGHT
The Lakers have won three straight in the final weeks of their desperate push for a post-season spot. Los Angeles also avoided getting swept in their season series with the Grizzlies, whose four-game winning streak ended.
Memphis’ Mike Conley scored 21 points before missing a potential go-ahead jumper with 5 seconds left and added another layup before the buzzer for the playoff-bound Grizzlies, who fell one game behind Denver for the fourth seed in the West. The Grizzlies could not score in the final 2.5 minutes.
New York’s Anthony scored 41 points, tying a franchise record with this third straight 40-point game, as the Knicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 101-83.
Anthony, who had 50 points and 40 in his previous two games, equaled Bernard King’s 1984-1985 mark. New York matched the third-longest winning streak in franchise history.
J.R. Smith added 30 points for the Knicks, who used a 42-point third quarter to turn around the game after a lackluster first half.
Miami’s Mike Miller scored a season-high 26 points on seven three-pointers, as the injury-depleted Heat beat the Charlotte Bobcats 89-79.
The Heat won despite playing without LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Ray Allen, who were held out while recovering from injuries.
The 33-year-old Miller was seven-of-11 from beyond the three-point arc.
Chris Bosh chipped in with 18 points and eight rebounds for Miami, who need three more victories to pass the franchise record of 61 wins in a regular season.
Rookie Michael Kidd-Gilchrist had 18 points and 14 rebounds for the Bobcats.
The Philadelphia 76ers piled on 40 points in the first quarter to set up a 101-90 win at the Atlanta Hawks.
Evan Turner had 24 points and 11 rebounds, while Spencer Hawes added 19 points and 12 rebounds for the 76ers, who made 16 of 22 shots in the opening term.
Josh Smith led Atlanta with 19 points.
CAREER HIGH
Golden State’s Stephen Curry matched his career high with 15 assists and sank two late free throws to seal the Warriors’ 111-107 win over Phoenix, inflicting a season-worst eighth-straight loss on the Suns.
Utah’s Gordon Hayward scored 23 points as the Jazz beat the New Orleans Hornets 95-83.
Dallas’ Shawn Marion had 25 points and 12 rebounds in the Mavericks’ 117-108 win at the Sacramento Kings.
Cleveland ended a 10-game losing skid with a 97-91 victory over the Boston Celtics, with Tristan Thompson having career highs with 29 points and 17 rebounds.
Chicago’s Nate Robinson scored 12 of his 19 points in the fourth quarter to guide the Bulls to a tight 87-86 win over the Orlando Magic.
Toronto’s Rudy Gay had 26 points and five rebounds to lead Toronto to a rare road victory in the Western Conference, winning 95-93 at the Minnesota Timberwolves.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier